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Thursday, Jul 9, 2009
Top state and national Democrats have insisted they will back Gov. Gray Davis against the recall. But their unity is quickly dissolving.
Aug 2, 2003 | Two weeks ago, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe flew into California and made what sounded like an ironclad guarantee: If the drive to recall Gov. Gray Davis made the ballot, Democrats would stand behind their governor and refuse to run against him. "I want the folks here in California to know that we are not going to have another Democrat on the ballot," McAuliffe told reporters in Los Angeles. "So if you're a California voter and you want to vote to recall Gray Davis, you are not going to have an option but a bunch of right-wing conservatives on the ballot."
But that was before -- before the recall made the ballot, before 123 candidates took out papers to enter the race to replace Davis, and before first one and then another and then another elected Democrat came forward to say that the party had better offer a big-name Democratic alternative to Davis or risk handing Republicans the keys to California. McAuliffe was asked again this week whether Democrats will stay out of the race to replace Davis. Suddenly, he was a bit more equivocal. "There are no guarantees in politics," McAuliffe told NPR's Mara Liasson. "I can tell you that we are unified today."
It's too bad those comments came on the radio, says U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who represents the San Fernando Valley. "You couldn't see whether Terry was looking at his watch."
Clearly, time is running out for Gray Davis. On October 7, Californians will go to the polls to decide whether to recall their governor and -- if so -- to choose a replacement for him. The national press and both major parties are focused on the circus atmosphere of what seems like an impossibly fast 10-week race for the governorship. The White House is watching, national Democratic leaders are talking, and -- as if that's not enough excitement in the summer doldrums -- Arnold Schwarzenegger will appear on NBC's "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno Wednesday to announce whether he's going to get into the race. Meanwhile, the California Supreme Court will be considering a legal challenge that could cancel the race to replace Davis altogether, leaving Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante in charge of the state if voters approve the recall. One way or another, in a country used to never-ending campaigns, this one will be over almost before it begins.
But for Davis, time may be moving even more quickly. By next Saturday, Aug. 9, candidates must decide whether to enter the race to replace the governor. And unless he can somehow turn around his abysmal poll numbers by then, or at least create some upward momentum, it appears almost certain that a prominent Democrat -- mostly likely U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein -- will enter the race to protect the party in case voters decide to oust Davis from office. While Democrats aren't particularly thrilled about rescuing Davis, they do want to save the state from a Republican governor and from the boost the recall might give California Republicans heading into the 2004 presidential election.
"There's a very short period of time here," a source close to the Democratic leadership told Salon. "What folks have done is given the governor an opportunity to ramp up." Another Democratic source told Salon that Feinstein is watching the polls closely. "She's looking to see what the polls would show about her jumping in, not jumping in, how this plays out," the source said.
Meanwhile, Democratic members of Congress are pushing Feinstein hard to join the race. Sherman, a leader in the movement to draft the state's senior senator, said he talked with her Friday and urged her to run. "She listened carefully and asked about the details of what I was saying," Sherman said. Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez told Salon that she spoke with Feinstein earlier in the week. While Feinstein said she was "not inclined to get in," Sanchez expressed optimism that she "might be talked into it."
Feinstein's office declined Friday to discuss the possibility that she would enter the race, referring reporters to prior public statements in which she condemned the recall but stopped just short of ruling out a candidacy.
Feinstein and Schwarzenegger would be instant front-runners in the race to replace Davis; if the Terminator decides, as rumored, to bow out, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a moderate Republican, would likely emerge as a front-runner in his place. With all three of them on the sidelines, at least for now, Davis has a few days in which to sell himself to a skeptical public.
Davis barely won reelection in November over a weak Republican challenger, millionaire businessman Bill Simon. When right-wing activists began their recall campaign earlier this year, Davis all but ignored it. When it finally caught steam -- powered by $1.6 million from Republican Rep. Darrell Issa -- Davis began to denounce the recall drive as a coup attempt by disgruntled Republicans. When the recall made the ballot in July, Davis' team stressed that it would cost the taxpayers $30 million to $60 million at a time when California is already facing a fiscal meltdown. And then, as in both of his runs for governor, Davis' surrogates went on the attack against potential Republican rivals.
On Thursday, however, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer warned Davis publicly that Democrats would desert him if he engaged in another "puke" campaign. And by Friday afternoon, Davis spokesman Gabriel Sanchez was out with a new message, suddenly pitching Davis a problem-solver who had made progress in cleaning up California's air and water and improving California's lagging public schools.
Saying he had not "heard anything" about a deadline for Davis to show improvement in his polls, Sanchez said: "He's the governor, and he will continue to be the governor. He's about finding solutions, and that's what he's doing right now."
That may be the case, but it's not clear that Democrats will wait much longer. While the Davis campaign and the national Democratic leadership apparently believe that the best way to stop the recall is to keep a viable Democratic alternative off the ballot, those in the draft-Feinstein movement see that strategy as too risky and unlikely to work.
